apprivoiser

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *apprīvātiāre, from Latin prīvātus (“deprived; freed, released”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“to bereave, deprive; to free, release”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/
Audio: (file)

Verb

apprivoiser

(transitive) to tame
Synonyms: dompter, dresser
- 1875, “Act I”, in Ludovic Halévy, Henri Meilhac (lyrics), Georges Bizet (music), Carmen:
  L’amour est un oiseau rebelle / Que nul ne peut apprivoiser, / […]
  Love is a rebellious bird / That none can tame, / […]
- 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince:
  Viens jouer avec moi, lui proposa le petit prince. […] Je ne puis pas jouer avec toi, dit le renard. Je ne suis pas apprivoisé.
  "Come play with me," proposed the little prince [to him]. […] "I cannot play with you," said the fox. "I am not tamed."
(transitive, figurative) to win over, to charm
- 1969, “Les Champs-Élysées”, Pierre Delanoë (lyrics), Michael Wilshaw (music), performed by Joe Dassin:
  J’avais envie de dire bonjour à n’importe qui / N’importe qui et ce fut toi, je t’ai dit n’importe quoi / Il suffisait de te parler, pour t’apprivoiser
  I was in the mood to say hello to someone, just anyone / and it was you, I told you anything / It was enough to talk to you, to charm you

Conjugation

Conjugation of apprivoiser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	apprivoiser
present participle or gerund¹	simple	apprivoisant /a.pʁi.vwa.zɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		apprivoisé /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/	apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/	apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/
	imperfect	apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/	apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/	apprivoisait /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/	apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/	apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/	apprivoisaient /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/
	past historic²	apprivoisai /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/	apprivoisas /a.pʁi.vwa.za/	apprivoisa /a.pʁi.vwa.za/	apprivoisâmes /a.pʁi.vwa.zam/	apprivoisâtes /a.pʁi.vwa.zat/	apprivoisèrent /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛʁ/
	future	apprivoiserai /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/	apprivoiseras /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/	apprivoisera /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/	apprivoiserons /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/	apprivoiserez /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/	apprivoiseront /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/	apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/	apprivoiserait /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/	apprivoiserions /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁjɔ̃/	apprivoiseriez /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁje/	apprivoiseraient /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior²	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/	apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/	apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/	apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	apprivoisasse /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/	apprivoisasses /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/	apprivoisât /a.pʁi.vwa.za/	apprivoisassions /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sjɔ̃/	apprivoisassiez /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sje/	apprivoisassent /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/	—	apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/	apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
¹ The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
² In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).